New opinion are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common. Some psychiatrists believe that humans are much more destructive and much crueler than animals. Animals are not sadistic; animals are not enemies of life. However, human history is a chronicle of unimaginable cruelty and destructiveness. That record gives us no reason to make light of the strength and intensity of human aggressiveness. However, I also think that the rots of our aggressiveness do not go back to our terrestrial nature, our instincts, and our past, but that human aggressiveness, to the extent that it is greater than that of animals, can be explained by the specific conditions of human existence. Aggressiveness, or destructiveness is an evil; it is not just a “so-called” evil. However, it is human. It is potential present in humans, present in all of us, and it will come to the fore if our development does not take better, more mature directions. The human “extra” of aggression, that measure of aggression in humans that exceeds animal aggression, is rooted in human character. I do not mean character here in a legal sense but in a psychoanalytical sense: character as a system of relationships that link an individual to the World. By character I mean what humans have created to replace the animal instincts that are only minimally developed in one. #RandolphHarris 1 of 18

What I am saying about character here may sound somewhat theoretical, but if you look back on your own experience I am sure that many of you will understand precisely what I am driving at when I speak of character in that sense. You will surely have come across people whom you would identify as having a sadistic character. And you will also have met others would characterize as “kindly.” When you make those judgments you are not saying that this person once did something sadistic or that that one was once very friendly. You are referring instead to a quality of character that runs through the individual’s entire life. There are sadistic individuals who never do anything sadistic because they never have the opportunity to, and only a very few acute observer will ever catch them red-handed in some small sadistic act. Conversely, there are character that are not basically destructive, yet individuals of this kind may shoot someone else down in a fit of rage or despair. However, that does not by any means indicate that their characters are essentially destructive. If we assume that human, that is, rooted in human’s specifically human condition and not in one’s primitive past, then we can avoid a logical paradox that the theoreticians of instinct cannot escape, try as they might. They claim that human’s greater aggressiveness can be explained from the lesser aggressiveness of animals. #RandolphHarris 2 of 18

  How can that be? We cannot assume that what a human has inherited from their primitive past has made them much more and aggressive and destructive than animals have ever been. The more logical conclusion is that human behaviour that differs from animal behaviour—in this case, human’s greater cruelty—is not something humans have inherited from their primitive past but something originating in the specific conditions of human existence. However, now let me make a few remarks about animal aggressiveness. Animal aggressiveness is attuned to biological needs. It serves the survival of the individual and of the species, and it is mobilized whenever there is an external threat to the animal’s vital interests, for example, whenever one is faced with a threat to one’s life, one’s food, one’s relations with animals of the opposite gender, one’s territory, or the like. If threatened, animals—and human beings—will react with either aggressiveness or flight. If no threat is present, no aggression will be mobilized. Aggressiveness is present in the brain as a mechanism that can be activated at any time but does not accumulate and does not have to be vented in actions if there is no particular stimulus or occasion for such behaviour. It does not, in other words, reflect the “hydraulic” model. #RandolphHarris 3 of 18

When the neurophysiologist Hess showed which centers or which areas of the brain produced aggressiveness when the appropriate stimuli were present and when a threat to vital interests mobilized those centers, he was the first to make it very clear that animal aggressiveness does not reflect the hydraulic model. The aggressiveness of predators is a different matter. Predators attack to obtain their food. That predatory aggressiveness is located, neurophysiologically, in enters of the brain different from the ones that control defensives aggression. On the whole, then, we find that animals are generally not very aggressive at all, unless they happen to be threatened. Blood is rarely spilled among animals, even when they actually fight. Observation of chimpanzees, sacred baboons, and other primates has shown how extraordinarily peaceful the social life of those primate actually is. We can probably safely say that if humanity displayed no more aggression than the chimpanzees, we would not have to worry about war and aggression at all. The same is true of wolves. Wolves are predators, and if they attack a sheep, they are of course aggressive. Human beings imagine the wolf to be an incredibly aggressive creature. However, in doing so they confuse one’s aggressiveness in finding food with one’s aggressiveness when one is not hunting for food. #RandolphHarris 4 of 18Wolves among themselves are not the least bit aggressive; they are downright friendly. It is therefore unjust to characterize human aggressiveness by comparing it with aggressiveness among wolves, as we do when we say that one man behaved toward another as one wolf did toward another (homo homini lupus). We could possibly say “as a wolf behaved toward a sheep” but not “as a wolf did toward a wolf.” We can see, then, that animal aggressiveness does not follow the hydraulic model. As long as the animal is not threatened, there is no constantly increasing aggressiveness that finally produces an explosion. To put it another way, human aggressiveness is a possibility provided by biology and present in the brain, but its activation is not a necessity. It will not manifest itself unless the need for self-preservation sets it in motion. That is an important difference from the behaviouristic thesis holding that aggressiveness is a learned trait and that it is circumstances and circumstances only that make people aggressive. Things are not that simple either, for if aggressiveness could be taught by circumstances, it could not move into action as quickly and intensely as it does and as it in fact must. The reality is that aggressiveness is a biological given, a possibility that is present and that can be mobilized very quickly. All the neurophysiological mechanisms necessary for its activation are there and functional in us, but, as I have said, they have to be mobilized first, and without mobilization they need not go into action. #RandolphHarris 5 of 18

Let me illustrate the point with a graphic example. If, for self-defense, someone keeps a revolver next to one of one’s bed at night or in one’s desk during the day, that does not mean one intends to shoot that revolver all the time. However, it does mean that one will use it in case of danger. That is precisely the way the physiology of our brain is organized. There is a revolver present in out brain, as it were, always ready for quick action in case of an attack. However, contrary to what the instinct theory claims, the existence of that state of preparedness does not result in a piling up of aggression that eventually has to explode. Then, too, Hess and other neurophysiologists have found that animals respond to danger not only with attacks but also with flight. Attack is the last resort the animal takes when its chances of flight are cut off. Only then does it attack; only then does it fight. And if we are to speak of an “aggressive instinct” in human beings, then we must also speak of a flight instinct as well. If the proponents of a theory of aggression and of instinct say humans are constantly prodded on by aggressive feelings that one can control only when the greatest of difficulty, we are obliged to add that humans are also motivated by an almost irresistible urge to flee, and this impulse, too, can be controlled only with the greatest of difficulty. #RandolphHarris 6 of 18

Anyone who has ever observed combat knows very well how strong the human impulse to flee is. Otherwise we would not need the laws that often punish military desertion with death. In other words, the human brain provides us with two possibilities for reacting to an attack: We can fight or we can flee. However, both the flight impulse and the attack impulse remain inactive if there is no threat, and they do not automatically produce a constantly active and ever-increasing tendency for aggression or flight. We have seen that the “hydraulic” theory of aggression is not tenable. Neurophysiological findings show that neither human or animal aggressiveness is a constantly growing, spontaneously self-activating drive but is mobilized by stimuli carrying a threat to either the human being’s or the animal’s existence or vital interests. However, there are reasons other than physiological ones that make the “hydraulic” theory untenable. It collapses, too, in the face of facts we can marshal from anthropology, paleontology, psychiatry, and social psychology. If the theory were correct, then we would expect that on the whole aggressiveness would be about the same in all individuals and in all cultures and societies. We would, of course, make allowance—as we do with intelligence—for differences in intensity, relatively small though those differences are. However, by and large people everywhere should display the same amount of aggressiveness and destructiveness. However, that is simply not the case. #RandolphHarris 7 of 18

Perhaps even more impressive than our knowledge of groups is the knowledge which is accumulating in the behavioural sciences as to the conditions which will be followed by specified types of behaviour in the individual. It is the possibility of scientific prediction and control of individual behaviour which comes closet to the interest of each one of us. Let us look at scattered bits of this type of knowledge. We know how to set up the conditions under which many individuals will report as true, judgments which are contrary to the evidence of their senses. And when a person is led to believe that everyone else in the group has an opinion, then one has a strong tendency to go along with this judgment, and in many instances does so with a real belief in one’s false report. Not only can we predict that a certain percentage of the individuals will thus yield, and disbelieve their own senses, but we can also determine the personality attributes of those who will do so, and by selection procedures would be able to choose a group who would almost uniformly give in to these pressures for conformity. We know how to change the opinions of an individual in a selected direction, without one’s ever becoming aware of the stimuli which changed one’s opinion. #RandolphHarris 8 of 18

A static, expressionless portrait of a man was flashed on a screen by Smith, Spence and Klein. Then they intermittently flashed the word “angry” on the screen, at exposures so brief that the subjects were consciously completely unaware of having seen the word. They tended, however, to see the face as becoming more angry. When the word “happy” was flashed on the screen in similar fashion, the viewers tended to see the face as becoming more happy. Thus they were clearly influenced by stimuli which registered at a subliminal level, stimuli of which the individual was not, and could not be, aware. We know how to influence psychological moods, attitudes, and behaviours, through drugs. For this illustration we step over into the rapidly developing borderline area between chemistry and psychology. Fromm drugs to keep awake while driving or studying, to so-called “truth serum” which reduces the psychological defenses of the individual, to the chemotherapy now practiced in psychiatric wards, the range and complexity of the growing knowledge in this field is striking. Increasingly there are efforts to find drugs with more specific effects—a drug which will energize the depressive individual, another to calm the excited, and the like. Drugs have reportedly been given to soldiers before a battle to eliminate fear. #RandolphHarris 9 of 18

Trade names for the tranquilizing drugs such as Miltown have already crept into our language, even into our cartoons. While much is still unknown about this field, in the not-too-distant future, the motivational and emotional conditions of normal life will probably be maintained in any desired state through the use of drugs. While this seems to be a somewhat exaggerated view, this prediction could be partially justified. We know how to provide psychological conditions which will produce vivid hallucinations and other abnormal reactions in the thoroughly normal individual in the waking state. This knowledge came about as the unexpected by-product of research at McGill University. It was discovered that if all channels of sensory stimulation are cut off or muffled, abnormal reactions follow. If healthy subjects lie motionless, to reduce kinaesthetic stimuli, with eyes shielded by translucent goggles which do not permit perception, with hearing largely stifled by foam rubber pillows as well as by being in a quiet cubicle, and with tactile sensations reduced by cuffs over the hands, then hallucinations and bizarre ideation bearing some resemblance to that of the psychotic occur withing forty-eight hours in most subjects. What the results would be if the sensory stifling were continued longer is not known because the experience seemed so potentially dangerous that the investigators were reluctant to continue it. #RandolphHarris 10 of 18

We know how to use a person’s own words to open up whole troubled areas in one’s experience. When a recorded therapeutic interview with a patient, brief statements by the patient which seem significantly related to the underlying dynamics of the case. Such a brief statement is then put on a continuous tape so that it can be played over and over. When the patient hears one’s own significant words repeated again and again, the effect is very potent. By the time it has been repeated twenty or thirty times the patient often begs to have it stopped. It seems clear that it penetrates the individual’s defenses, and opens up the whole psychic area related to that statement. For example, a woman who feels very inadequate and is having marital difficulties, talked about her mother in one interview, saying of her, among other things, “That is what I cannot understand—that one could strike at a little child.” This recorded sentence was played over and over to her. It made her very uneasy and frightened. It also opened up to her all her feelings about her mother. It helped her to see that “not being able to trust my mother not to hurt me has made me mistrustful of everybody.” This is a very simple example of the potency of the method, which can not only be helpful but which can be dangerously disorganizing if it penetrates the defenses too deeply or too rapidly. #RandolphHarris 11 of 18

We know the attitudes which, if provided by a counselor or a therapist, will be predictably followed by certain constructive personality and behaviour changes in the client. Studies we have completed in recent years in the field of psychotherapy justify this statement. The findings from these studies may be very briefly summarized in the following way. If the therapist provides a relationship in which one is a genuine, internally consistent; acceptant, prizing the clients as a person of worth; empathically understanding of the client’s private World of feelings and attitudes; then certain changes occur in the client. Some of these changes are; the client becomes more realistic in one’s self-perceptions; more confident and self-directing; more beneficially valued by oneself; less likely to repress elements of one’s experience; more mature, socialized and adaptive in one’s behaviour; less upset by stress and quicker to recover from it; more like the healthy, integrated, well-functioning person in one’s personality structure. These changes do not occur in a control group, and appear to be definitely associated with the client’s being in a therapeutic relationship. We know how to disintegrate a being’s personality structure, dissolving one’s self-confidence, destroying the concept one has of oneself, and making one dependent on another. We have an accurate study of the process popularly know as “brainwashing.” #RandolphHarris 12 of 18

The study has shown that no magical nor essentially new methods have been used, but mostly a combination of practices have been developed for brainwashing by rule of thumb. What is involved is largely a somewhat horrifying reversal of the conditions of psychotherapy briefly noted above. If the individual under suspicion is rejected and isolated for a long time, then one’s need for a human relationship is greatly intensified. The interrogator exploits this by building a relationship in which one shows mostly non-acceptance, and does all one can to arouse guilt, conflict and anxiety. One is acceptant toward the subject only when the subject cooperates by being willing to view events through the interrogator’s eyes. One is completely rejecting of the subject’s internal frame of reference, or personal perception of events. Gradually, out of ones need for more acceptance, the subject comes to accept half-truths as being true, until little by little one has given up one’s own view of one’s self and of one’s behaviour and has accepted the viewpoint of one’s interrogator. One is very much demoralized and disintegrated as a person, and largely the puppet of the interrogator. One is then willing to “confess: that one is an enemy of the state, and has committed all kinds of treasonable acts which wither one has not done, or which actually had a very different significance. #RandolphHarris 13 of 18

In a sense it is misleading to describe these methods as a product of the behaviour sciences. They were developed by the police, not by scientists. Yet I include them here since it is very clear that these crude methods could be made decidedly more effective by the means of scientific knowledge which we now possess. In short our knowledge of how personality and behaviour may be changed can be sued constructively or destructively, to build or to destroy persons. Remember the story in the Bible, Matthew 20.12-15, about a land owner who paid all the workers equally no matter how many hours they worked? Well, at a certain state university there was a freshman English class with the typical variety of students. One the one hand there were a few conscientious and well-disciplined students who had learned good study habits in high school. They consistently did assignments, studied well for tests, and turned in well-prepared term papers on time. At the opposite end of the spectrum were the typical “party boys” who did just enough work to get by. They rarely did assignments, hardly studied for tests, and never turned in a term paper on time. And as is typical in such a class, the vast majority of students were somewhere in between. At last final exam day arrived. As expected, the disciplined students all did well, and the party boys all did poorly. #RandolphHarris 14 of 18

After a couple of days, the professor posted the grades outside his office door. As the students crowded around to see what grade they had received, they were all stunned to see that everyone in the class had received an “A.” The party boys could hardly believe their good fortune, and the good students were outraged to realized that those who deserved to fail had received the same tip grade as they had. If you saw any credibility in this story you probably shared in the outrage of the hardworking students. It certainly does seem unfair that the class of “goof-offs” should receive the same grade as those who actually earned an “A.” However, what you have read is simply a modern-day version of the parable of the generous landowner we considered in the Bible story. Although I have recast the story in terms of a present-day setting, the essential elements of the two stories are identical. In both versions a group of people got far more than they deserved and received as much reward as those who had actually worked for theirs. The message even of the biblical parable strikes many people as unfair. One some speaking occasions, I have actually asked for a how of hands on the issue, and the vast majority of people have felt the landowner was unfair. People agree with those workers who labored a full twelve hours, right through the heat of the day, that they should be paid more than those who worked only one hour. #RandolphHarris 15 of 18

In the strict context of labour relations (or of class grades in the modern parable), they are right that the people who worked longer should have been paid more. The landowner and the English professor both seem unfair. However, Jesus was not teaching principles of labour relations. He was teaching principles of grace. He said, “The kingdom of Heaven is like…” and proceeded to tell the parable. In effect, He said to Peter, “In the kingdom of Heaven the operative principle is not merit but grace.” One group of people did not think the landowner was unfair: the labourers who worked only one hour. Jesus did not tell us their reaction, but we can easily assume they were elated and grateful. As the day had worn on, leaving them standing unemployed in the marketplace, their hope for any pay and hence any food for their families for the day had gradually eroded. At give o’clock in the afternoon they faced an evening with no supper. Finally they were given an opportunity to earn what they assumed would be a mere pittance, one-twelfth of a day’s wages—not nearly enough to buy food for their families. It is not hard to imagine, then their joy upon receiving a day’s wages, enough to feed their families that day. They did not think about any unfairness on the part of the landowner; they considered him very generous. #RandolphHarris 16 of 18

God is teaching us to be the change we want to see in the World and giving everyone grace so they can feel compelled to treat others well. “I judge that ye have faith in Christ because of your meekness; for if ye have not faith in him then ye are not fit to be numbered among the people of his church. And again, my beloved brethren I would speak unto you concerning hope. How is it that ye can attain unto faith, save ye shall have hope? And what is it that ye shall hope for? Behold I say unto you that ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal, and this because of your faith in him according to the promise. Wherefore, if a being have faith one must needs have hope; for without faith there cannot be any hope,” reports Moroni 7.39-41. Lord Jesus Christ, pour into us the Holy Spirit promised by the Father, that He may give us life, and teach us the fulness of truth in the Mystery of the blessed and undivided Trinity; that our salvation may be perfectly accomplished by His gift, wherein consists the perfection of all virtue. O Holy Spirit of the Comforter, Who with the Father and the Son abides One God in Trinity; descend this day into our hearts, that while Thou makest intercession for us, we may with full confidence call upon our Father. May the infinite and ineffable Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, direct our life in good works, and after our passage through this World vouchsafe to us eternal rest with the righteous. Grant this, O Eternal and Almighty God. #RandolphHarris 17 of 18

Lord God Almighty, Thou art beforehand with men for thou hast reconciled thyself to the World through the cross, and dost beseech people to accept reconciliation. It is my responsibility to grasp thy overtures of grace, for if thou, the offended part, act first with the word of appeasement, I need not call in question thy willingness to save, but must deplore my own foolish maliciousness; if I do not come to thee as one who seeks thy favour, I live in contempt, anger, malice, self-sufficiency, and thou dost call it enmity. Thou hast taught me the necessity of a mediator, a messiah, to be embraced in love with all my heart, as king to rule me, as prophet to guide me, as priest to take away my sin and death, and this by faith in thy beloved Son who teaches me not to guide myself, not to obey myself, not to try to rule and conquer sin, but to cleave to the one who will do all for me. Thou hast made known to me that to save me is Christ’s work, but to cleave to him by faith is my work, and with this faith is the necessity of my daily repentance as mourning for the sin which Christ by grace has removed. Continue, O God, to teach me that faith apprehends Christ’s righteousness not only for the satisfaction of justice, but as unspotted evidence of thy love to me. Help me to make use of his work of salvation as the ground of peace, and thy favour to, and acceptance for me the sinner, so that I may live always near the cross. #RandolphHarris 18 of 18

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It is good sportsmanship to not pick up lost golf balls while they are still rolling. Progress, therefore, is not an accident, but a necessity…It is part of nature. Progressive people cannot help having detractors, for people can see only what one permits them to see. And if that small part is misread by them, one has to remain silent. One will not force an affinity where it does not exist. They may have visited one and talked with one, not once but several times; they may think they know one well, yet in reality they have not met one and do not know one at all! Only the real pilgrims, who some with the correct mental attitude, have done so, and only they have been blessed by one’s grace and prized their good fortune at its correct value. One must be prepared to find that others, because of their limitations—not necessarily or at all because they are evil—may seriously misunderstand one, misread one’s actions, and misinterpret one’s words. If one were not ardently happy to share it with others, if one were not ever ready to help them attain it too, whoever has attained this blessed state would not be true to oneself. And this desire extends universally to all without exception. One excludes none—how could one if the compassion which one feels be the real thing that comes with the realized unity of God, and merely a temporary emotional masquerader! #RandolphHarris 1 of 19

One could have written those noble words which Saint Paul wrote more than one in his epistles: “In Him there cannot be Jew or Greek, Barbarian, Scythian, but all are one man in Christ Jesus.” Despite this, one soon finds that iron fetters have been placed on one’s feet. One finds, first, that only the few who are themselves seekers are at all interested; second, that even among this small number there are those who, because of personal dislikes, racial prejudice, social snobbery, or family antagonism, are unwilling to approach one; and third, that the mischievous agencies from occult spheres, through false reports and stimulated malice, delude a part of those who remain into creating an evil mental picture of one which is utterly unlike the actuality. For when such a being really begins to become an effective worker in this sacred cause, the evil forces begin their endeavours to pull one down and thus stop one. They may inspire human instruments with fierce jealousy or personal hatred of one, or they may try other ways. It is their task to destroy the little good that one has done or to prevent whatever good one may yet do. It is an unfortunate but historic fact that many an aspirant is carried away by the false suggestions emanating from such poisoned sources. The true Prophet does not wear a single rag of the cloak pretense. #RandolphHarris 2 of 19

Therefore, one makes an easy mark for the poisoned arrows of one’s traducers. For the World does not willingly believe that a being can exist who tries to live one’s life literally on the principles of Christ’s Sermon on the Mount. It prefers to believe that one has some hidden motive, that one lives a life of secret evil. Those who do not know what the inward life means and consequently do not understand such a being—walking mantled in unique serenity as one does—often mistakenly regard one, if they themselves are of a markedly emotional temperament, as being cold and aloof, and reserved. Another common mistake is to believe a self-actualized person to be less divine because one is more human then preconceived notions had imagined one to be. The self-actualized are not creatures of sentimentalism. They do not love their neighbour in a gushy emotional way. How could they, when one expresses only one’s lower human nature or one’s beastly animal self? Not only do they not love humanity individually, they do not even love it in the mass. Those who have malignantly attacked the person or injured the work of such a being through whom the divine forces are working for the enlightenment of humankind, create for themselves a terrible karma which accumulates and strikes them down in time. #RandolphHarris 3 of 19

One will endeavour to protect one’s work by appropriate means, one being temporarily to withdraw one’s love from them for the rest of one’s incarnation until their dying moments. Then one will extend it again with full force and appear to them as in a vision, full of forgiveness, blessing, and comfort. Can those born blind be made to understand the difference between colours? The difficulty is insuperable. Realizing this, every person’s words, who speak from that life, must sound vain to those who do not dwell in the same thought on their own part. There is a warmth, an intimacy in the Personal God, the Personal Master, which does not seem to exist in the impersonal ones. Nevertheless it would be highly erroneous to believe that they are cold and unresponsive, lifeless and stonelike. There is feeling but it is pure, refined, delicate, and flowerlike. If conditions a, b, c exist or are established in a group, then there is a high probability that these conditions will be followed by behaviours x, y, and z. We know how to provide conditions in a work group, whether in industry or in education, which will be followed by increased productivity, originality, and morale. Studies show in general that when workers in industry participate in planning and in decisions, when supervisors or authoritarian, production and morale increase. #RandolphHarris 4 of 19

Conversely we know how to provide the conditions which lead to low productivity and low morale, since the reverse conditions produce a reverse effect. We know how to establish, in any group, the conditions of leadership which will be followed by personality development in the members of the group, as well as by increased productivity and originality, and improved group spirit. In groups as diverse as a brief university workshop and an industrial plant making castings, we have seen that where the leader or leaders hold attitudes customarily thought of as therapeutic, the results are good. In other words if the leader is acceptant, both of the feelings of group members and of one’s own feelings; if one is understanding of others in a sensitively empathic way; if one permits and encourages free discussion; if one places responsibility with the group; then there is evidence of personality growth in the members of the group, and the group functions more effectively, with greater creativity and better spirit. We know how to establish conditions which will result in increased psychological rigidity in members of a group. In a careful study, two matched groups of students were taken and measured were several aspects of their abilities, particularly abstract reasoning. Each of the students in one group was then given an analysis of one’s personality based upon the Rorschach test. #RandolphHarris 5 of 19

Following this both groups were re-tested as to their abilities. The group which had been given an evaluation of their personalities showed a decrease in flexibility, and a significant decrease in ability to carry on abstract reasoning. They became more rigid, anxious, and disorganized in their thinking, in contrast to the control group. It would be tempting to note that this evaluation—experience by the group as somewhat threatening—seems very similar to many evaluations made in our schools and universities under the guise of education. All we are concerned with at the moment is that we do not know how to establish the conditions which makes for less effective functioning on complex intellectual tasks. We know a great deal about how to establish conditions which will influence consumer responses and/or public opinion. I think this need not be documented with research studies. I refer you to the advertisements in any magazine, to the beguilements of TV programs and their Trendex ratings, to the firms of public relations experts, and to the upward trend of sales by any corporation which put on a well-panned series of ads. We know how to influence the buying behaviour of individuals by setting up conditions which provide satisfaction for needs of which they are unconscious, but which we have been able to determine. #RandolphHarris 6 of 19

It has been shown that some women who do not buy instant coffee because of “a dislike for its flavour” actually dislike it at a subconscious level because it is associated with being a poor housekeeper—with laziness and spendthrift qualities. This type of study, based on the use of projective techniques and “depth” interviews, has led to sales campaigns built upon appeals to the unconscious motives of the individual—one’s unknow pleasures of the flesh, aggressive, or dependent desires, or as in this instance, the desire for approval. These illustrative studies indicate something of our potential ability to influence or control the behaviour of groups. If we have the power or authority to establish the necessary condition, the predicted behaviours will follow. There is no doubt that both the studies and the methods are, at the present time crude, but more refined ones are sure to develop. It is well appreciated that in small, long-standing social circles each member comes to be known to the others as a “unique” person. The term unique is subject to pressure by maiden social scientists who would make something warm and creative out of it, a something no to be further broken down, at least by sociologists; nonetheless, the term does involve some relevant ideas. #RandolphHarris 7 of 19

 One idea involved in the notion of “uniqueness” of an individual is that of a beneficial mark or identity peg, for example, the photographic image of the individual in others’ minds, or the knowledge of one’s special place in an articular kinship network. An interesting comparative case is that of the Tuareg of West Africa whose males cover their faces leaving only a small slit to see of out; here, apparently, the face as an anchorage for personal identification is replaced by body appearance and physical style. Only one person at a time can be fitted to the image I am here discussing, and one who qualified in the past is the self-same person who qualifies in the present and will do so in the future. Note that items such as fingerprints which are the most effective means of rendering individuals identifiably different are also items in terms of which they are essentially similar. A second idea is that, while most particular facts about an individual will be true of others too, the full set of facts known about an intimate is not found to old, as a combination, for any other person in the World, this adding a means by which one can be absolutely distinguished from everyone else. Sometimes this complex of information is name-bound, as in the case of a police dossier; sometimes it is body-bound, as when we come to know the pattern of behaviour of someone whose face we know but whose name we do not know; often the information is bound both to name and body. #RandolphHarris 8 of 19

A third idea is that what distinguishes an individual from all others is the core of one’s being, a general and central aspect of one, making one different through and through, not merely identifiably different, from those who are most like one. By personal identity, I have in mind only the first two ideas—absolute marks or identity pegs, and the unique combination of life history items that comes to be attached to the individual with the help of these pegs for one’s identity. Personal identity, then, has to do with the assumption that the individual can be differentiated from all others and that around this means of differentiation a single continuous record of social facts can be attached, entangled, like candy floss, becoming then the sticky substance to which still other biographical facts can be attached. What is difficult to appreciate is that personal identity can and does play a structured, routine, standardized role in social organization just because of its one-of-a-kind quality. If one takes as a point of reference not a small group but a large impersonal organization, such as the state government, the process of personal identification can be seen at work clearly. It is now standard organizational practice that a means of absolute identification for every individual to be dealt with is officially recorded, that is, a set of marks is used that distinguishes the person so marked from all other individuals. #RandolphHarris 9 of 19

As suggested, the choice of mark is itself quite standard: unchanging biological attributes such as handwriting or photographically attested appearance; permanently recordable items such as birth certificate, name, and serial number. Recently, through the use of computer analysis, experimental progress has been made in using speech and handwriting qualities as identity pegs, thus exploiting a minor expressive feature of behaviour much as specialist do in “authenticating” paintings. More important, the Social Security Act of 1935 in America ensures that almost every employee will have a unique registration number to which can be affixed a lifelong record of employment, a scheme of identification which has already worked considerable hardship on criminal classes. In any case, once an identity peg has been made ready, material, if an when available, can be hung on it; a dossier can be developed, usually contained and filed in a manila folder. One can expect that personal identification of its citizens by the state can expect that personal identification of its citizens by the state will increase, even as devices are refined for making the record of a particular individual more easily available to authorized persons and more inclusive of social facts concerning one, for example, receipt of dividend payments. #RandolphHarris 10 of 19

There is considerable popular interest in the efforts of harried persons to acquire a personal identity not of their “own” or to disengage themselves from the one that was originally theirs, as in efforts to scar finger tips or to destroy public birth certificate records. In actual cases, personal name is usually the issue, because of all identity pegs it seems to be the one most generally employed and at the same time the one that is in certain ways easiest to tamper with. The respectable and legally advisable way of changing one’s name is by a documented act, the record of which is available in a public file. A single continuity is thus preserved in spite of apparent diversity. This is the case, for example, when a woman changes her last name through the act of marriage. In the entertainment World it is common for a performer to change one’s name, but here, too, a record of the previous name is likely to be available, and even widely known, as is also the case with pen-named authors. Occupations where a change in the name can occur without being officially recorded, such as those of comfort women and men, criminal, and revolutionary, are not “legitimate” trades. A remaining case is that of the Catholic clerical orders. Whenever an occupation carries with it a change in name, recorded or not, one can be sure that an important breach is involved between the individual and one’s old World. #RandolphHarris 11 of 19

It should be stated that some name changes, such as those employed by draft dodgers and motels guests, are specifically oriented to the legal aspects of personal identification, while other changes, such as ones employed by ethnics, are oriented to the issues of social identity. One student implies that some professional entertainers have the distinction of qualifying on both counts: The average chorus girl changes her name almost as frequently as her coiffure to accord with current theatrical popularity, showbusiness superstitions, or, in some cases, to avoid payment of Equity dues. I might add that professional criminals employ two special types of re-naming: aliases, used very temporarily, although often repeatedly, to avoid personal identification; “monikers,” namely, nicknames given in the criminal community and retained for life, but used only by and to members of the community or the wise. A name, then, is very common but not very reliable way of fixing identity. When a court of law must deal with someone who has every motivation to misrepresent oneself, it is understandable that other absolute marks will be sought. Personal identity is proved in courts of law, not by reference to names, not even mainly by direct testimony, but “presumptively” by evidence of similarities or differences in personal characteristics. #RandolphHarris 12 of 19

The question of social information must now be raised again. The embodied signs previously considered, whether of prestige or stigma, pertain to social identity. Clearly all of these must be distinguished from the documentation that individuals carry around with them purportedly establishing personal identity. These documents have come to e widely used in Britain and America by natives as well as foreigners. Registration cards and drivers’ licenses (containing fingerprints, signatures, and sometimes photographs) are felt to be necessary. Along with these self-identifications, the individual may carry documents of age (in the case of youths who wish to frequent gambling establishments or to be served liquor), a license to engage in protected or dangerous trades, permission to be away from barracks, and so forth. This information is often supplemented by family pictures, evidence of past military service, and even photostatic copies of college certificates. Recently, information about the bearer’s medical status has also appeared, and its general use advocated: Medical identity cards for all are being considered by the Ministry of Health. People would be asked to carry them always. The card would contain details such as vaccinations, owner’s blood group, and of any disease, such as hemophilia, that should be known immediately if the person is involved in an accident. #RandolphHarris 13 of 19

One of the aims is to help quick treatment in an emergency and to avoid the dangers of injecting people with vaccine to which they might be allergic. It may be added that there appears to be an increasing number of work establishments which require the individual to wear, and if not wear then possess on person, employee identification cards with photographs. The whole point of these various identification devices is, of course, that they allow no innocent error or ambiguity, transforming what would be merely a questionable use of socially informing symbols into clear-cut forgery or illegal possession; therefore the term identity document might be more accurate than identity symbol. (Compare, for example, the relatively loose basis for identification of Jewish identity through appearance, gesture, and voice.) Incidentally, this documentation and the social facts attached thereto are often presented only in special situations to those specially authorized to check up on identity, unlike prestige and stigma symbols, which are more likely to be available to the public at large. Because information about personal identity often is of the kind that can be strictly documented, it can be used to safeguard against potential misrepresentation of social identity. #RandolphHarris 14 of 19

Thus, army personnel may be required to carry identity documents validating the potentially false claims of their uniform and its insignia. The student’s personal identification card assures that librarian that one is vested with the right to borrow library boos or to enter the stacks, just as one’s driver’s license can attest that one is of legal age for drinking in commercial establishments. So, too, credit cards attest on the surface to personal identity, useful in deciding whether to give or to withhold credit, but in addition attest to the individual’s being of a social category to warrant such accrediting. A being proves one is Dr. Thomas Hiram to prove one is a doctor, perhaps rarely showing one is a doctor to prove one is Thomas Hiram. Similarly, individuals excluded from some hotels on the basis of their ethnicity may have been ethically identified through their names, so that here, too, an item of personal biography is exploited for categoric reasons. In general, then, biography attached to documented identity can place clear limitations on the way in which an individual can elect to present oneself; the situation of some British ex-mental patients who cannot pass as ordinary job applicants at the Employment Exchange  because their National Insurance cards have unstamped gaps, provides an illustration. #RandolphHarris 15 of 19

I might add that the act of concealing personal identity can itself carry implications regarding social category: the sun gases that celebrities employ to conceal their personal identity presumably reveal, or did for a time, a social categorization of someone who wants to be incognito and would otherwise be recognized. Once the different between social symbols and identity documents is perceived, one can go on to look at the special position of oral statements which attest linguistically, not merely expressively, to social and personal identity. Where an individual has insufficient documentation to receive a desired service, one can be seen to attempt use of oral testament in its place. Groups and societies differ, of course, in their beliefs as to how much identity testament is appropriate in roughly equivalent social situations. In our society a person is always what one’s designation makes one, therefore we are very punctilious in giving it. At parties in Delhi I see people adding it themselves when the introducers omit to announce it. One day, at the house of a foreign diplomat in Delhi, a young man was introduced to me without his official position being mentioned. He immediately bowed and added, “Of the X-Ministry, and what Department are you from?” When I replied that I belonged to none, he seemed to be as much surprised by the fact that I had been invited thee at all as by my not having a designation. #RandolphHarris 16 of 19

There have always been two fundamentally different views of human nature. One has claimed that humans are evil and destructive by nature. That is why war is inevitable, and that is why we have to have strict authorities over us. Human beings have to be kept under control. We have to protect them from their own aggressiveness. The other view says that humans are basically good, that it is only adverse social conditions that make them bad. If we change those conditions, then we can reduce the evil the aggressiveness in humans, or possibly even rid ourselves of it altogether. Those views represent extremes that both miss the mark. People who propound the natural, innate aggressiveness of humans are inclined to overlook those many historical epoch, those many cultures, and those many individuals that have displayed a minimum of aggressiveness. If aggression were innate, such examples would never exist. On the other side of the fence, the optimists who are against war and for peace and social justice have often been inclined to at least underestimate the significance and strength of human aggressiveness, if not deny it altogether. “And now, my beloved brethren, if this be the case that these things are true which I have spoken unto you, and God will show unto you, with power and great glory at the last day, that they are true, and if they are true has the say of miracles ceased? #RandolphHarris 17 of 19

“Or have Angels ceased to appear unto the children of humans? Or has one withheld the power of the Holy Ghost from them? Or will one, so long as time shall last, or the Earth shall stand, or there shall be one man upon the face thereof to be saved? Behold I say unto you, Nay; for it is by faith the miracles are wrought; and it is by faith that Angels appear and minister unto humans; wherefore, if these things have ceased wo be unto the children of human, for it is because of unbelief, and all is vain,” reports Moroni 7.33-37. We beseech Thine Omnipotence, Holy God, Father Almighty, that Thou wouldest fill us with the gift of Thine Only-begotten Son, and the ineffable blessing, visitation, and life-giving power of Thine and His Holy Spirit; whereby Thy Church, enkindled with His fire, may hold the true faith in Him from Whom she receives all truth. Thou God of all grace, thou hast given me a saviour, produce in me a faith to live by him, to make him all my desire, all my hope, all my glory. May I enter him as my refuge, build on him as my foundation, walk in him as my way, follow him as my guide, conform to him as my example, receive his instructions as my prophet, rely on his intercessions as my high priest, obey him as my kind. May I never be shamed of him or his words, but joyfully bear his reproach, never displease him by unholy or imprudent conduct, never count it a glory if I take it patiently when buffeted for a fault, never make the multitude my model, never delay when thy words invites me to advance. #RandolphHarris 18 of 19

May thy dear Son preserve me from this present evil World, so that it smiles never allure, not its frowns terrify, nor its vices defile, nor its errors delude me. May I feel that I am a stranger and a pilgrim on Earth, declaring plainly that I seek a country, my title to it becoming daily more clear, my meetness for it more perfect, my foretastes of it more abundant; and whatsoever I do may it be done in the Saviour’s name. Let Thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us, and the brightness of Thy Spirit illumine our inward souls; that He may kindle our cold hearts and light up our morbid minds, Who abideth evermore with Thee in glory. O Holy Spirit, Who prceedest from the Father and the Son, teach us to do the truth, that Thou mayest unite us in a mysterious bond of love to the Father and Son, from Whom Thou proceedest so ineffably. Let Thy Spirit, O Lord, come into the midst of us, and washing us with the pure water of repentance, prepare us to be always a living sacrifice unto Thee. Heavenly King, Paraclete, Spirit of Truth, Who art everywhere present and fillest all things, the Treasury of good things and the Bestower of life, come and dwell in us, and purify us from every stain, and save our souls, in Thy goodness. O Lord, Father Almighty, bless and protect, through Thine only Son, in the power of the Holy Spirit, Thy servants who are obedient to Thy majesty; that being free from free of all enemies, they may continually rejoice in praising Thee; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. #RandolphHarris 19 of 19

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My strength is as the strength of ten, because my heart is pure. These lands are ours. No one has a right to remove us, because we are the first owners. God above has appointed us with manifest destiny, which means the United States has a divinely mandated obligation to expand across North American to the Pacific and overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our multiplying millions, on which we will build our houses and businesses, and here we will remain. I remember with technicolor clarity when our first child was born—April 22, 1990—a blazing-hot Southern California night. It has been so hot that I had taken my round little wife to the ocean—Huntington Beach, to be exact—to cool off. There I hollowed out a place in the sand for her tummy, and we stretched out under the Sun while the cool breezes of the Mar Pacifica refreshed us, as we both unwittingly began to sunburn. It was midafternoon when we headed back to the heat and smog of Beverly Hills, so we rolled back the sunroof of our burgundy 1989 BMW 735i and foolishly baked some more. We soon were red as tomatoes. After dinner, as we lay smarting on the hot sheets of our bed, labor began, and that is about all we remember of our sunburns. My wife was occupied with another kind of pain, and I was so excited I forgot about mine. #RandolphHarris 1 of 19

That night brought one of the greatest events of our lives—for God gave us our firstborn, a handsome little boy we named Brice. I remember everything, even the color of the hospital walls. It seems like only yesterday. Another event has lodged in my mind with similar vividness. Another event has lodged in my mind with similar vividness. 23 July 2017, in another hospital in far-off Canada, my son Brice had his firstborn, a beautiful little boy, William, and he held him with the same rapture. Both experiences were profoundly supernatural, for I saw God’s creation: blood, Earth, water, wind and fire. Though just a speck on time’s continuum, I felt a sacred solidarity with the past and the present. I also felt grace, the unhindered flow of God’s goodness to me and my family. Today, as a grandfather of six (with promises of more to come), it is increasingly apparent that my most treasured possessions, next to life in Christ, are the members of my family. I share the universal reflex that if a fire occurred, after getting the kids out, I would go back for the photographs, the scrapbooks, the birthday cards and notes. Someday, when all is gone, when I can no longer see or hear or talk—indeed, when I may no longer know their names—the faces of my loved ones will be on my soul. For a conclusion is the place where you got tired of thinking. #RandolphHarris 2 of 19

At mid-life I am finding increasing satisfaction in my family and in their families. All my children are serious Christians and want to make their lives count for Christ. I say this humbly, because parents often take too much blame for their children’s problems and too much credit when they turn out well. I realize that my children are what they are by the grace of God and that for me and them the road has not ended. I have mutually fulfilling relationships with all my children. They are independent of me, but they desire my company and counsel. We have mutual respect. They call me, and I call them, and we all live for the holidays when we can be together. I have shared all this because, though I have not been a perfect father, I have learned some things along the way which I must pass along, man to man, to those of you in the midst or at the beginning of fathering. Men, the mere fact of fatherhood has endowed you with terrifying power in the lives of your sons and daughters, because they have an innate, God-given passion for you. I went through my son’s journal and read a letter he wrote. “From time to time I have felt for my father a longing to have his acceptance. It has bewildered me, even thrown me into depression. It is mysterious to me exactly why his approval mattered so much. I have seen this longing in other men—and seen it now in my own sons, their longing for me. #RandolphHarris 3 of 19

“I think that I have glimpsed it once or twice in my father’s feelings about his father. Perhaps it is some urge of Telemachus, the residual infant in the man still wistful for the father’s heroic protection. One seeks to return not to the womb…but to a different thing, a father’s sponsorship in the World. A boy wants the aura and armament of his father. It is a deep yearning, but sometimes a little sad—a common enough masculine trait that is also vaguely unmanly. What surprises me is how angry a man becomes sometimes in the grip of what is, in essence, an unrequited need of approval.” Our sons naturally want us! Perhaps, men, you have experiences something like this. You have just finished a run, and you are sitting on the porch sweating like a pig and smelling like one, and your son, or perhaps a little neighbor boy, sits down next to you, leans against you, and says, “You smell good.” This is the primal longing for one’s father. And our daughters’ hearts are naturally turned toward ours with parallel longing. The terrible fact is, we can either grace our children, or damn them with unrequited wounds which never seem to heal. Our society is awash with millions of daughters pathetically seeking the affection their fathers never gave them—and some of these daughters are at the sunset of their lives. #RandolphHarris 4 of 19

In the extreme, there are myriads of sons who were denied a healthy relationship with their father and are now spending their lives confused about their gender identity and gender role. Men, as fathers you have such power! You will have this terrible power even father your death, like it or not—in your attitude toward authority, in your regard for God and the Church. What terrifying responsibilities! This is truly the power of life and death. For these reasons we live in a time of great social crisis. Whole segments of our society are bereft of male leadership. At the other end of the scale, there are strong men who give their best leadership to the marketplace, but utterly fail at home. We are the men! And if God’s purpose does not happen with the son of the Church, it will not happen. Men, there are few places where sanctified sweat will show greater dividends than in fathering. If you are willing to work at it, you can be a good father. If you are willing to sweat, you will see abundant blessing. Helpfully, God’s Word provides us with an outline for a fatherly workout—in one pungent sentence: “Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord,” reports Ephesians 6.4. This outline is easiest remembered as a “do not” and a “do.” The “do not” is: “Fathers, do not exasperate your children”; the “do” is “instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.” #RandolphHarris 5 of 19

The “do not” is perfectly clear, because it literally means, “do not provoke your children to anger so they begin to seethe with resentment and irritation.” The New English Bible captures the idea very well: “You fathers, again, must not goad your children to resentment.” The directness and simplicity of this “do not” invites us to do some honest thinking about the ways we goad our children to exasperation. It is hardly surprising that we are devoting more and more attention to the problem of aggression these days. We have experienced wars in the past; we are experiencing them in the present; and we fear the atomic war for which all the major powers of the World are arming themselves. At the same time people feel powerless to change this state of affairs. They see that their governments, which appear to have applied all their wisdom and brought all their goodwill to the to the issue, have not yet been able even to slow down or stabilize the arms race. So it is quite understandable that people are eager, on the one hand, to know where aggression really comes from but, on the other, are also receptive to theories that say aggression is part of human nature, not something that humans creates themselves or that their social institutions inevitably produce. Aggression is constantly and spontaneously being created in the human brain, it may be a legacy from ancestors, and it may increase more and more, assuming larger and larger proportions, if there is no release for it. #RandolphHarris 6 of 19

If there is due cause, it will be expressed. However, if the provocations are very weak or are missing altogether, then the accumulated aggression will eventually explode. People cannot help behaving aggressively after a certain period, because they have gathered so much aggressive energy inside them that it has to be released. We might call this a “hydraulic” theory. The greater the pressure becomes, the greater the likelihood is that the water or steam will burst out f its container. Every six months, my aunt in Vienna would hire a new maid. When the maid first arrived, my aunt was always utterly delighted and full of great expectations. However, after a week or two her enthusiasm began to wane. Disenchantment soon gave way to criticism and dissatisfaction, and finally, after about six months, she was so furious with the maid that she fired her. My aunt went through this cycle more or less regularly every six months, and this shows how aggression gradually builds up until, at a certain point, it has to vent itself. Now that may be how things look from the outside, but if we understand a little more about people than most do, then we know how inadequate this explanation may seem. A psychoanalyst—and not only a psychoanalyst but almost anyone with a little light into human nature—will assume that my aunt is a narcissistic, exploitive woman who would like to buy not just eight hours of work a day when she hires a maid but love, loyalty, devotion, amiability, and fifteen hours of work a day. #RandolphHarris 7 of 19

She greets every new maid with those same expectations and is no doubt quite nice and charming to her, because she assumes that at last she has found the right one. However, once she takes a closer look she finds that the maid will not measure up to her expectations at all. She becomes more and more disappointed and angry and finally fires the maid, hoping that the next one will prove to be the right one. Since she probably has very little to do, the search for the perfect maid provides some drama in her life and gives her something to talk about. It is probably the main focus of her conversations with her friends. None of her behavior has anything to do with accumulated aggression; it is instead the product of a very specific character structure. And I am sure that at least the older people among you know any number of individuals who—whether there happen to be maids any more or not—would behave similarly in that kind of situation. The theory of innate aggression, which I cannot go into in detail here, bears a certain relationship to the old theory of death wish. It was Dr. Freud’s assumption from the 1920s on that there were two basic drives in all people, in all cells, in any living substance: a will to live and a will to die. And the will to die—or, more exactly, this wish for death—could express itself in one of two ways. #RandolphHarris 8 of 19

 If it was turned outward, the death wish is manifested itself as destructiveness; if turned inward, it was a self-destructive force that led to illness, suicide, or, if merged with impulses for pleasures of the flesh, masochism. The death wish, the theory holds, is innate. It is not affected by circumstances; it is not called into being by external forces. Humans have only two choices: Either one can turn one’s wish for death and destruction against oneself, or one can turn it against others. And that leaves one faced with a tragic dilemma indeed. However, in fact the scientists who have concerned themselves with this problem have been able to turn up very little evidence over the years to support the theory. The generally accepted view among psychologist today is that aggression is conditioned by the social environment or that it is “channeled” by specific stimuli, by the culture—in short, by any number of factors. However, the theory of aggression gained great popularity in the general public. It deluded us into thinking there was nothing we could do after all. It provided us with a good excuse: If all this aggression and the dangers that go with it are in fact innate in us, we cannot hope to run counter to our very nature, can we? Many people thought World War I, in Europe, would last indefinitely and ruin all Europe. Yet the idea of a collective existence persisted, to be achieved on another, profounder, level than that of national unity. #RandolphHarris 9 of 19

The Protestant Principle can be given a far wider scope than some consider. Not limited to the classical religious question of how sinful humans can be acceptable to a holy God, it can be understood to encompass human’s intellectual life as well, and thus all of human’s experiences. As the sinners are declared just in the sight of God, so the doubter is possessed of the truth even as one despairs of finding it, and so cultural life in general is subject both to critical negation and courageous affirmation. The war was a shattering experience to many, not only for its carnage and physical destruction but as evidence of the bankruptcy of the 19-th century humanism and the questionableness of the adequacy of autonomy as a sole guide. The chaotic situation in Germany, after the armistice, made people certain the Western civilization was indeed nearing the end of an era. The impending cultural breakdown was a momentous opportunity for creative social reconstruction, characterized by the New Testament term Kairos, signifying a historical moment into which eternity erupts, transforming the World into a new state of being. One is not so naïve as to think that socialism, in any forms, can approximate the Kingdom of God: The realization of the Kingdom of God can never become an immanent reality and the absolute can never be realized in space and time. Yet, in this period of reconstruction, theology should hold up the ideal of the Kingdom of God before the eyes of the builders. #RandolphHarris 10 of 19

It is a warm work; and this day may be the last to any of us at a moment. However, mark you! I would not be elsewhere for thousands. “And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said, Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh. Blessed are ye, when humans shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast you your name as evil, for the Son of Man’s sake. Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in Heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets. However, woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation. Woe unto you that are full! for ye shall hunger. Woe unto you that laugh now! for ye shall mourn and weep. Woe unto you, when all beings shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets,” reports Luke 6.20-26. Readers and students of the New Testament often find that it is not the refined argument of Pau or the mystical wisdom of John, but the simple sayings of Jesus, as recorded by the first three evangelists, which are the most difficult to interpret. The words of Jesus seem so clear and straightforward and adequate that it is hard to imagine that anybody could miss the meaning. However, when we are asked to express the meaning in our own words, we discover one level of meaning after another. #RandolphHarris 11 of 19

We realize that words of Jesus which we have know since our earliest childhood are incomprehensible to us. And if we try to penetrate them, we are driven from one depth to another; we are never able to exhaust them. Nothing seems simpler, and yet nothing is more perplexing, than, for instance, the Lord’s prayer, the Parables, and the Beatitudes. We have heard the four Beatitudes and the four Woes as Luke reports them. Their meaning seems unmistakable. The poor, those who are hungry now, those who weep now, those who are isolated and insulted, are praised, congratulated, so to speak, because they can expect precisely the opposite of their present situation. And those who are exploiting others, those who are full, those who laugh, those who are unduly popular and respected, are pitied, because they must expect precisely that which is contrary. Two questions arise. What is promised and to whom is it promised? What is the kingdom which is to be owned by the poor, and who are the poor who shall own it? And who are the rich against who the Woes shall be directed, and what shall happen to them? St. Matthew tried to answer these questions. He said that the poor are the poor in spirit, and that those who hunger, hunger after righteousness. He said that those who weep, mourn for the state of the World. And to them is promised the kingdom of Heaven, the vision of the Divine Spirit, the comfort and mercy of the realm of God. #RandolphHarris 12 of 19

Is Saint Matthew’s interpretation right? Or has Matthew, and have the official Christian Churches, following him, spiritualized the Beatitudes? Or, on the other hand, has Luke, and have the many sectarian and revolutionary movements, following him, distorted the Beatitudes from a materialistic point of view? Both assertions have been made and both are wrong. If we want the true answer, we must look at those to whom Jesus spoke. He spoke to two kinds of people. One kind lived wit their hearts turned toward the coming stage of the World. They were poorly adjusted to things as they were. They were suffering under the conditions of their lives. Many were disinherited, insecure, hungry, oppressed. There is no distinction made in the Beatitudes between spiritual and material want, and there is no distinction made between spiritual and material fulfillment. Those to whom Jesus spoke were in need of both. Neither the prophets nor Jesus spiritualized the message of the Kingdom. Nor did they understand it and interpret it to say that the Kingdom would come as the result of a merely material revolution. Christianity pronounces the unity of body and soul. The Beatitudes praise those who will be fulfilled in their whole being. However, the other kind of people to whom Jesus spoke were those to whom He promised the Woes. #RandolphHarris 13 of 19

They were unbroken in their relation to the present stage of the World. They lived with their hearts in things as they are. They were well-established in their lives; they enjoyed prestige, power, and security. Jesus threatened them spiritually and materially. They were bound to this eon, and they were to vanish with this eon. They had no treasure beyond it. The situation of the people of Galilee to whom Jesus spoke is still our situation. The Woes are promised today to all of us who are well off, respected, and secure, not simply because we have such security and respect, but if we are blind to the needs of others and  not humble before God, it inevitably binds us, with almost irresistible power, to this eon, to things as they are. And the Beatitudes are promised today to all us who are without security and popularity, who are mourning in body and soul. And they are promised not simply because we lack so much, but because the very fact of our lacks and our sorrows may turn our hearts away from things as they are, toward the coming eon. The Beatitudes do not glorify those who are poor and in misery, individuals or classes, because they are poor. The Woes are not promised to those who are rich and secure, classes or individuals, because they are rich. If this were so, Jesus could not have promised to the poor the reversal of their situation. He praises the poor in so far as they live in two World, the present World and the World to come. And He threatens the haughty in so far as they live in one World alone. #RandolphHarris 14 of 19

This brings a tremendous tension into our lives. We life in two orders, one of which is a reversal of the other. The coming order is always coming, shaking this order, fighting with it, conquering it and conquered by it. The coming order is always at hand. However, never say: “It is here! It is there!” One can never grasp it. However, one can be grasped by it. And whenever one is grasped by it, one is rich, even if one be poor in this order. One’s wealth is one’s participation in the coming order, it its battles, its victories, and defeats. One is blessed, one may rejoice and leap even when one is isolated and insulted, because one’s isolation belongs to this order, while one belongs to the order! One is blessed, while they who cast out one’s name are to be pitied. By their dread and despair, and by their hatred of him, they prove that the Woes Jesus has directed against them have already become real. They lose the one and only order they have; they disintegrate in body and spirit. Perhaps we are right to consider the catastrophe of our present World as a fulfillment of the Woes which Jesus directed against a rich, abundant, laughing, self-congratulating social order. However, if we believe this, we can also believe that those who have become poor and hungry and sorrowing and persecuted in this catastrophe are those in whom the other order is made manifest. They may betray it, but they are called first. Only through the paradox of the Beatitudes can we begin to understand our own life and the life of our World. #RandolphHarris 15 of 19

The conformism that threatened Jesus most effectively and brought him to death was the religious conformism of his time. And the situation was and is not different in the church. For the Christian churches also belong to this eon, although they witness to the coming eon and represent the coming eon in time and space. They share in the corruption of this eon, its mixture of good and evil. And their history is a continuous witness to their corruption. Therefore, Saint Paul’s warning against being conformed is also valid for the church. However, is it possible, one may ask, to escape conformity if one belongs to the group that is unite by a common creed, by rituals, by ethical standards, by old traditions and regular acts of common devotion? Can you adhere to a church and not be conformed? Indeed, there were non-conformist churches. However, were they not non-conformist for only one historic moment, and then conformist themselves, like those from whom they separated? These are serious questions, especially for Protestants whose church came into existence through a protest against the conformity of the ruling church. I do not hesitate to state that one may have to resist being conformed even in the church community. #RandolphHarris 16 of 19

Certainly, such an act also involves a risk. One may be in error. However, it must be done. For it may represent the divine protest against everything human, even the highest forms of religion. A church in which this divine protest does not find a human voice through which it can speak has become conformed to this eon. Here we see what non-conformity ultimately is—the resistance to idolatry, to making ultimates of ourselves and our World, our civilization and our church. And this resistance is the most difficult thing demanded of a being. It is so difficult that the prophets in the Old and New Testament, and the Reformers, and the leaders of the struggle against idolatry in the history of religion as a whole, when called to fight the conformity to this eon, tried to escape this task. It is almost too difficult for human beings. It is not too difficult to become a critic and rebel. However, it is hard not to be conformed to anything, not even to oneself, and to pronounce the divine judgment against idolatry, not so much because the courageous act may lead to suffering and martyrdom, but because of the risk of failure. It is hard because something in our conscience, a feeling of guilt, tries to prevent us from becoming non-conformist. However, even this feeling of guilt we must take upon ourselves. One who risks and fails can be forgiven. One who never risks and never fails is a failure in one’s whole being. #RandolphHarris 17 of 19

One is not forgiven because one does not feel that one needs forgiveness. Therefore, dare, to be not conformed to this eon, but transform it courageously first in yourselves, then in your World—in the spirit and the power of love. “That which is of God inviteth and enticeth to do good continually; wherefore, every thing which inviteth and enticeth to do good, and to love God, and to serve him, is inspired of God. Wherefore, take heed, my beloved brethren, that ye do not judge that which is evil to be of God, or that which is good and of God to be of the devil,” reports Moroni 7.13-14. God, Who art the Author of our freedom and of our salvation, hear the voices of Thy supplaints, and grant that those whom Thou hast redeemed by the effusion of Thy Blood may both live by Thee, and enjoy perpetual safety in Thee, O Saviour of the World. Grant to us, O Lord, we beseech Thee, that as we celebrate the mysteries of the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus, so at His coming we may be enable to rejoice with all His Saints; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Blessed Lord Jesus, no human mind could conceive or invent the gospel. Acting in eternal grace, thou art both its messenger and its message, lived out on Earth through infinite compassion, applying thy life to insult, injury, death, that I might be redeemed ransomed, freed. Blessed be thou, O Father, for contriving this way, Eternal thanks to thee, O Lamb of God, for opening this way, Praise everlasting to thee, O Holy Spirit, for applying this way to my heart. #RandolphHarris 18 of 19

Glorious Trinity, impress the gospel on my soul, until its virtue diffuses every faculty; let it be heard, acknowledged, professed, felt. Teach me to secure this mighty blessing; help me to give up every darling lust, to submit heart and life to its command, to have it in my will, controlling my affections, moulding my understandings; to adhere strictly to the rules of true religion, not departing from them in any instance, nor for any advantage in order to escape evil, inconvenience or danger. Take me to the cross to seek glory from its infamy; strip me of every pleasing pretence of righteousness by my own doings. O gracious redeemer, I have neglected thee too long, often crucified thee, crucified thee afresh by my impenitence, put thee to open shame. I thank thee for the patience that has borne with me so long, and for the grace that now makes me willing to be thine. O unite me to thyself with inseparable bonds, that nothing may ever draw me back from thee, my Lord, my Saviour. Lamb of God, Who takest away the sin of the World, lok upon us and have mercy upon us; Thou Who are Thyself both Victim and Priest, Thyself both Reward and Redeemer; keep safe from all evils those whom Thou has redeemed, O Saviour of the World. We give Thee thanks, O God the Father, Who hast delivered us from the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of Thy Son; grant therefore, we pray Thee, that as by His death He has recalled us to life, He may raise up in His love to joys eternal. #RandolphHarris 19 of 19

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